One of the world’s leading scientific journals has criticized the federal government for policies that limit its scientists from speaking publicly about their research.
The journal, Nature, says in an editorial in this week’s issue that it is time for the Canadian government to set its scientists free.
Despite this plea to Harper to stop muzzling our scientists, I suspect it will take an extraordinary act of divine intervention before any changes are made by a government obsessed with controlling the flow of information.
Lorne, this form of secrecy and message control is the stock in trade of every petro-state without exception. Andrew Nikiforuk chronicles that very well in his book "Tar Sands." Harper's fetish for energy superpowerdom would be gored by his own climate scientists were they allowed merely to answer questions.
ReplyDeleteHe's gagged the public service and he's gagged the armed forces, effectively transforming both into political agencies of the PMO. Harper's political commissars decide what questions from the public may be submitted and then filter and "craft" (that's their word for it) the responses to ensure they conform to government policy. That too is the time-honoured practice of authoritarian, undemocratic regimes everywhere.